In today’s Throwback Thursday we go back to Saturday October 2 2004 and a landmark victory, our first-ever in the Premiership, against Harlequins.
Having been promoted to the top flight for the first time, Warriors lost the first four matches in the top flight, including home matches against Newcastle Falcons and Bath, but secured a try bonus point on the return to Sixways.
Worcester Warriors 33-7 NEC Harlequins
Warriors secured their first-ever top flight win – with a bonus point for good measure – which left
Harlequins five points adrift at the bottom of the table, facing a crisis situation.
Early tries by ex-Quins star Pat Sanderson and centre Ben Hinshelwood gave Warriors a dream start, establishing a 14-0 ahead inside 16 minutes.
Samoan Siaosi Vaili provided the clincher from close range midway through the second half, before his fellow replacement Lee Fortey then guaranteed an extra point with Warriors’ fourth try and James Brown completed the rout in injury time.
Brown booted four conversions to finish with 13 points and Quins could only manage a 20th minute Luke Sherriff touchdown, converted by Jeremy Staunton, in reply.
Warriors were fired-up and dominant for most of the game against a Quins team lacking direction
Warriors made the early running, with Matt Powell prominent around the forward fringes, and they went ahead in classic set-piece fashion after 10 minutes.
Lock Craig Gillies took a clean line-out catch 15 metres out from the Quins line, and his fellow forwards drove on relentlessly, enabling skipper Sanderson to claim an impressive touchdown that Brown converted from wide out.
It got worse for Quins just five minutes later, and this time they were undone from inside the Warriors half as Powell sparked a thrilling counter-attack.
His pace and angle split Quins’ defence open, and the move ended with Scottish international Hinshelwood touching down in the corner. Brown again landed a difficult conversion.
Quins were visibly rocked, but their reply came before a lively opening quarter had ended.
Prop Ceri Jones – later to join Warriors’ coaching staff – powered forward with line-out possession, and although he was tackled, the supporting Sherriff made the most of his chance, with Staunton’s conversion halving the deficit.
Warriors tightened up defensively after Sherriff punished them, and they had chances to extend their lead before the break, but sacrificed a couple of kickable penalties before Brown rifled a 30-metre chance wide.
Trailing by seven points at the break, Quins needed to start the second period by establishing supremacy, but they were immediately put under pressure and had full-back Gavin Duffy sin-binned for slowing the ball down.
Warriors strived to make their temporary one-man advantage count, and it required some desperate last-ditch defending from Quins when home centre Thomas Lombard dived for the corner.
French international Lombard was narrowly denied a try, yet Warriors kept battering away before their perseverance was rewarded.
Hooker Ben Daly crashed through Quins’ defensive front-line, causing sufficient damage for Vaili to power over. Brown once again added the extras.
Warriors then turned the screw in terms of territory, going flat out for a bonus point that arrived four minutes from time when Fortey sent a 7,000-strong Sixways crowd wild.
Quins’ heads had dropped, all the life had gone out of their team, and Brown scurried over to compound their misery in the final move of the game
Warriors | 15 Thinus Delport, 14 Dale Rasmussen, 13 Ben Hinshelwood, 12 Thomas Lombard, 11 Ben Gollings, 10 James Brown, 9 Matt Powell, 1 Tony Windo, 2 Ben Daly, 3 Neil Lyman, 4 Tim Collier, 5 Craig Gillies, 6 Leon Greeff, 7 Pat Sanderson, 8 Drew Hickey.
Replacements | 16, Steve Sparks, 17 Lee Fortey, 18 Andre van Niekerk, 19 Siaaosi Vaili, 21 Clive Stuart-Smith, 22 Daren O’Leary.